Fort Lewis College Faculty Senate met on Oct. 4 to revisit amendments to the faculty handbook and hear from the advisory committee on accessibility of information technology.

Changes to handbook wording

Faculty Senate will begin looking at policies that need updated wording, Michael Martin, faculty senate president, said.

“We want to get these cleaned up and remove limiting languages,” Martin said. “Anything that impacts curriculum and faculty will be brought to the senate.”

Sections of the handbook that had been previously amended are being reviewed by the Board of Trustees, following a vote to send the changes to the BOT made Sept. 24, Gary Gianniny, faculty representative for the Board of Trustees, said.

“We have found cumbersome language that can be improved,” Gianniny said. “Last year it wasn’t clear, so we’re going to take a shot at changing it.”

Changes to Section 11 of the handbook

A vote was taken on whether wording changes made to section 11 in the handbook, which deals with faculty promotion policies, needs to be voted on by all faculty members.

It was changed so that now applying for a promotion to professor is a choice, where as old wording assumed all faculty would apply for the promotion, Deb Walker, professor of economics said.

This change was sent out to all faculty for an anonymous vote where faculty will decide if they want to pass the changed amendment, Michael Valdez, associate professor of management said.

Accessibility of Information Technology  Committee Presents Conference

The advisory committee on AIT has created conferences on Canvas to help faculty create materials which are accessible to all students, Betty Dorr, committee member and psychology professor, said.

“The push of the committee is to ensure we’re compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it takes a little extra effort to do that,” Dorr said. “We’re going to start asking more faculty to have ADA material training so that all materials are available.”

One hundred faculty members have already completed the ADA 2.0 conference, Dorr said.